The Way of the Sword
by RoyLikesSwords
Summary: What's wrong with the King of Hyrule? Read and find out! R&R please!
1. The Dream

The Way of the Sword  
by RoyLikesSwords (RLS)  
  
Author's note: I do not own anything that has to do with the Zelda games. That's all copyright Nintendo. I also do not own anything that has to do with Fire Emblem (copyright Enix). Nor do I own anything that has to do with Ogre Battle 64, which is copyright Quest. I only own John and his sword, Grozz Nuy.  
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Link was running away from something. He turned and saw a humongous creature. It was... King Dodongo? But he killed it when he was a young 'un... how did it come back to life? And how did it grow plant-like tentacles? And why is it so... small? The dodongo had to be a bit taller than half his height. When Link was 10, it was like 50 feet tall.   
Without warning, Link fell off a cliff. He didn't see it coming; there were too many thoughts going through his mind. The Hookshot was his only hope of survival. Link squeezed the handle and watched the 'shot get lodged in the opposite cliff wall a ways up. But now he was swinging right into the jagged cliff! The rocky blades came up to meet him...  
The next thing he knew, he was on the top of the cliff with three warriors, all wielding swords. One had blue hair, another had reddish-brown hair, and the third had brown hair so dark you could only tell it was brown if you were inches away from him. The Dodongo was on the other side of the abyss.   
The brown-haired one yelled something in Japanese. He dashed forward at near the speed of sound and jumped. Brown (his tentative name) brought his sword underneath him and stabbed his way into the Dodongo's neck. It roared, then fell to the ground, its head half-way cut off.   
Link looked around. Four others joined the blue and red haired guys. The first had blue hair like Marth, but he wore silver armor and had his hair in a braid that laid over his chest (kinda like how Obi-Wan and Anakin keep theirs). His eyes were dark. The second had sandy-blonde hair and had his in a short ponytail. A red armored band covered his forehead. He had a light-green tunic on with a heavy leather belt. A leather strap across his chest held his sword in place on his back, similar to Link's. The third man... or was it a woman? No, it was a man, but he had long, wild-looking blonde hair that almost touched his waist. He had silver full-body armor with a purple silken cloth going down the middle of it. He had no scabbard for his sword.  
The fourth...was it...no...Malon? It looked just like her, if she had her hair in a single thick braid that went down to her waist. She was the same size as Malon, but she wore a cream-white dress. Link could tell she had armor underneath. The girl had a sword, and a shield that was even shinier than the Mirror Shield, and it had sapphires etched into it. It looked just like the winter sky...  
Brown jumped back over the cliff, and all the warriors started conversing. Link couldn't hear what they were saying. He tried to get up, but he was aching too much, and there were a few bandages on his body where the rocks on the cliff had cut him.   
"Can you sense it?" The one who had the red armored band across his forehead.  
"Yes, Destin...that Infernal Aura..." Replied the long-haired blonde guy.  
"It gets stronger each day. It won't be long 'til the enemy shows its ugly face, Debonair."  
The girl...Malon...she looked just like her... Link couldn't stop thinking of her. Was it really Malon? he asked himself over and over.   
"John!" the blue-haired guy with the Padawan-style braid's voice brought Link back to his senses. How much of this conversation did I just miss now? The brown-haired guy looked at him. "Lead your troops into Hyrule. We can't let what happened to Altea and Palatinus happen to that noble country."  
"Yessir, General Magnus."  
"We'll meet you there soon enough. Just hold out until then."  
  
Link woke up.  
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RSL: So, how was it so far? Confusing? Hope not. Exciting? Hope so. What will happen to Hyrule? Will this thing that Magnus spoke of come to Hyrule? Who is John? What does Magnus mean by "his troops? Will this dream/prophecy/vision really happen? Where did Link wake up at? Who is this girl who looks like Malon? Is it Malon? Find out in the next chapter! 


	2. Mysterious Visitors

The Way of the Sword  
Chapter II: Mysterious Visitors  
  
Author's note:Author's note: I do not own anything that has to do with the Zelda games. That's all copyright Nintendo. I also do not own anything that has to do with Fire Emblem (copyright Enix). Nor do I own anything that has to do with Ogre Battle 64, which is copyright Quest. I only own John and his sword, Grozz Nuy. (yes, i did just copy/paste this from the previous chapter. lazy me)  
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Link got off the ground. He was in the middle of Hyrule Field. The remains of a campfire was nearby. Epona was sleeping in the thick grass.   
"What was that dream all about?" he thought aloud. It was dawn. A bit of gray was just starting to gather in the east. Hyrule Castle's gate was just starting to open. He looked frantically around for any signs of an army. None. None of the people he saw in his dream were in sight. In fact, the only person Link saw was Talon on his way to town to sell milk. He waved sleepily. Link waved back.   
"Well, I might as well get ready for the day." he said to Epona. Drawing his sword, he turned to the dead tree next to him.  
Slash! Cut! Cut! Spin slash! Link always warmed up every morning with his sword on anything... well, anything that wasn't alive, that is, whether it be Poe, dead tree, or even the occasional Stalchild, which were VERY rare nowadays. He saw a Peahat once, but under law by the Hylian Endangered Species Activists Group, he wasn't allowed to even touch them.   
The horse pawed the ground and neighed in the direction of Lon Lon Ranch. Link could tell Epona missed home. They hadn't been there in weeks. They were trying to find an alternate route into Termina, under the King's orders. It was getting crowded using the same old dimension warp in the Lost Woods. The Kokiri living there were getting nervous seeing so many strange visitors going through their forest.   
"I don't see why we couldn't take a little break..." Link thought. He mounted Epona and set off for the ranch.   
When he got there, Malon was nowhere to be seen. "She must be sleeping." Link said to Epona.   
"No I'm not! I'm right here, fairy boy!" It was Malon.  
"Malon! I haven't seen you in weeks!" Link gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. They were just about to start a conversation when a messenger came from the castle.  
"Sir Link, Hero of Time, Conqueror of Ganondorf, Savior of Hyru--"  
"Ok, ok, just get to the point!" Link broke in.  
"The King requests an audience of you. Strange visitors from another land have come. They don't look like Terminians. They go by the names of..." A dark violet cloud formed around the messenger. His voice was toneless; it seemed to echo in upon itself.  
"Link...Hero of Time...ugh...DIE!" The messenger seemed possessed.  
"Calm down! Snap out of it!" Link threw a Deku Nut, but the man still walked towards Link.  
"Ugh...must...kill...Hero...of...Time..." the man raised his arms, and a fireball formed above his head. Link absorbed it with his Mirror Shield.  
"Sorry I have to do this..." Link slashed the man from the side. The Master Sword cut through his waist, and stopped in the middle. The violet cloud dissipated, and the man fell to the ground.  
Malon gasped. "W, what was that all about? He could've killed you!"  
"Not a chance. That guy was just a common messenger being possessed by...some dark force."  
"Well, shouldn't you go to the castle now?"  
"Yeah, but I'm taking you with. Who knows how many other people have been possessed by that cloud?"  
Malon's face lit up. "Yes!" she thought. He mounted Epona and pulled Malon up. Epona sped off at a gallop without Link telling her to do so, obviously wanting to get away from the ranch.  
A few hours later, slowed down by castle security so heavy that it makes our airports nowadays seem like a Mexico-US border customs checkpoint, Link and Malon finally got to the throne room, where mysterious men in full-body armor stood behind the King's throne. At their front were two men: one had combed-back blonde hair and wore black armor. A twisted rapier that looked more like a corkscrew hung at his side. The other had short blonde hair that was swept back in large, low-lying spikes. He had silver armor on with large red cloth shoulders. The edges had pure-white fur. A broad sword was in a scabbard by his side.  
"Welcome...Link, Hero of Time." The King seemed a little... different. "Any progress in your search?"  
"No."  
"Well, I need you to find an entrance into Termina in EXACTLY a month! You hear me? A MONTH!" he roared.   
"Who are those two?"  
"THAT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! But, I suppose I could introduce them to you...it wouldn't hurt. The one with the silver armor goes by the name of Richard. On my other side is his younger brother, Baldwin. This is their elite guard behind me. They are all knights from a VERY powerful kingdom that wishes to forge an alliance with Hyrule. Ok, that's all! Out! Out!" Two guards came from behind the King. Their armor was silver. They had large rectangular shields with a sun on it. Its rays spread all over the shield. Their helmets had a thin cross-shaped opening for the face. One pushed Malon out, the other pushed Link.  
"You needn't mess with business bigger than you can handle..." he paused and Link could tell by his voice that the face behind the helmet wasn't a friendly one "...Hero of Time."  
When Link and Malon were out, the doors were slammed by the guards.   
"My father has been acting strangely lately." Link turned; Malon jumped a little. It was Zelda. "What's she doing here?" Zelda asked, looking at Malon.  
Link explained everything. Zelda nodded.  
"Yeah, those guys came just after the King sent that messenger. There was a banquet hosted by the guests. Only the King and some of his soldiers were invited. When they came out, they were different somehow. The soldiers caught a few of the messengers and fed them some kind of fruit. When they ate it, this dark cloud came around them, then melted into their bodies. It comes out every time they do certain things, like talking to the king..."  
"...casting magic spells..." Malon said.   
"Yeah, whatever."  
Link could sense the tension building between the two. "Uh, I really gotta get going, you know, I got that Termina gate to find, and, uh, later bye Zelda!" he grabbed Malon's hand and went down the stairs.  
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"Are you sure this is the right place, Sir John?"  
"For the last time, call me Johnny! I'm getting tired of this 'sir John' stuff!"  
"Ok... are you sure this is Hyrule?"  
"For the last time, yes!"  
Johnny and his small battalion just got into Hyrule. Europea's forces would come in later, then Marth and Roy would enter by themselves, and finally Destin and Debonair's grand army would march into Hyrule. They would prevent the fruit of the netherworld to be brought into the kingdom at any cost.  
The Ninja Master, Minamoto, dropped from the trees. Other members of his ninja force followed suit. "We haven't detected any enemy forces on the open field. They'll be inside buildings or hiding in the mountains, if here at all."  
"Good so far." Johnny replied. "Uh, continue your search for any sign of Lodis." The ninja seemed to melt into the darkness of the forest as they continued their search, as their leader said.  
"Why don't we try that place with the stone walls around it? It looks like fort, and it would be a great headquarters if a battle were to take place." suggested Jeni, a Diana and the best with a bow in Johnny's entire battalion.   
"Great idea! Let's check it out!" He told his messenger to have the whole army meet at the "fort."   
Little did Talon know that when he got home, he would find the most feared army in all of Palatinus knocking at his door.  
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RLS: Ooooh, the plot thickens! Will Talon agree to let Johnny's army stay at Lon Lon Ranch? Will Link and Malon get out of Hyrule Castle ok? Is the girl in Link's dream Malon in the near future? Find out in the next chapter, coming soon! 


End file.
